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Category: Empowerment

“Wes is going against the grain in the executive recruitment industry by looking at all of the skills available on the market; always identifying and including the best female leaders in every recruitment process.“

Anna strongly believes that female candidates have all the right competences and desire to make it as a leader. However, finding female talent often requires some detective work, as many women simply do not apply for the top positions. WES has thus adopted an innovative recruitment process, looking beyond the traditional networks to identify potential candidates.

I truly admire Anna’s mission to promote female talent to build a more gender neutral future, and hope to see more of such initiatives in the future.

For all Scandinavian readers, click on the photo above to listen to Anna Stenberg’s interview on the Swedish “Investpodden“.

If you ever find yourself having an hour to kill, I highly recommend Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations podcasts.

Personally, I like listening to them on my way to work in the morning, because the conversations fill me with positive energy, I can utilize throughout the day. Plus Oprah’s voice has a soothing effect on me…

Oprah Winfrey story

SuperSoul Conversation

Oprah podcast

If you get hungry for more, the SuperSoul instagram account is full of inspiring quotes, which serves as an interesting contrast to all the memes and exotic breakfast bowl pictures…

If you haven’t already watched it, I urge you to watch Harvard Business School professor and social psychologist Amy Cuddy, author of the book Presence, TED talk on body language and how it changes our behaviour and, by extension, outcomes in life.

Personally, I don’t do the Wonder Woman in the office bathroom, or lean back in the chair with my legs spread out in meetings (although I am sure the other meeting participants – mostly elderly men – certainly wouldn’t mind if I did…). I do, however, enjoy an occasional “star fish” pose, where you stretch yourself as big as possible, especially in the morning – to my boyfriend’s big frustration, as my power pose nearly kicks him out of bed.

According to Amy Cuddy, a power pose such as the Wonder Woman directly affects testosterone, a dominance hormone, and cortisol, a stress hormone, making you more confident and resilient. Although I do not necessarily feel super risk tolerant following my morning pose, I must admit it feels really good to stretch myself biiig… And kicking my boyfriend out of the bed actually does make me feel stronger and more confident!

Anyways, I do believe we could all learn from Amy Cuddy and become more aware of our postures when attending meetings. Personally, I am very aware of and affected by how people – and myself – appear in meetings. Although I would not necessarily describe my posture as a power pose, I aim to appear engaged and confident – “leaning in” and sitting with my back straight. Whether it works or not, I am at least quite certain I appear professional – and with time I hopefully succeed in faking it ’til I become it!